On his first full day as San Francisco’s new police chief, Toney Chaplin looked the part. A new gold-embroidered hat sat on his head, and even more stars lined his already full collar.
In what was part public relations stunt, part news conference, Chaplin walked through the windy courtyard of a Chinatown public housing complex Friday alongside Mayor Ed Lee as journalists surrounded them in a frenzied circle.
The scene’s optics portrayed the perfect clean slate for The City and it’s troubled Police Department: a black chief handpicked to lead a department mired in allegations of racial bias and questionable shootings. It was also an occasion for Lee, who on Thursday received the resignation of former chief Greg Suhr after another person was shot and killed by police, to look like he is taking charge of the situation.
But the department’s issues abound. From two racist text message scandals to three fatal police shootings since December, Chaplin has his work cut out for him in restoring the community’s faith in public safety.
On Friday, Chaplin, a 26-year veteran of the force, wasted no time in setting his priorities, which sounded much like those of his predecessor: get body cameras into the field and finalize a new use of force policy.
“Reforms, reforms, reforms,” Chaplin emphasized at the news conference, adding he plans a top to bottom review of the department.
Chaplin, who in February was put in charge of the new Bureau of Professional Standards and Principled Policing as part of The City’s efforts to transform the department, most recently served as a deputy chief. He served previously as a commander and lieutenant, among other roles.
But even as Chaplin and the police commissioners in attendance voiced their commitment to reforms, and said the process to pick a permanent chief is underway, several unanswered questions remain.
Will the resignation of Suhr be enough of a change of tone to alter the department’s troubled narrative, and is a department insider the man to do it?
Or will a more drastic change be required?
Allies of Chaplin describe him as a long-time hard-working cop with an affable demeanor and a commitment to community policing.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Rev. Amos Brown, who met with Chaplin Thursday, lamented Suhr’s departure, but said he knows and respects Chaplin, whose family attends the Third Baptist Church in the Western Addition where Brown preaches.
San Francisco police Sgt. Yulanda Williams, who heads the department’s black police officers association, Officers for Justice, says she has known Chaplin since they graduated from the academy together nearly 30 years ago and thinks he is the right man for the job.
“Things have unfolded quickly and he’s been put in a tough spot,” she said. “But I believe he has been groomed by the administration and that he will be able to complete the direction that the chief was trying to move forward with.”
Williams, who has faced backlash from the politically powerful Police Officers Association, said she does not expect Chaplin to have the same relationship with the union as Suhr. “Toney is not going to tolerate complete resistance and disrespect,” said Williams.
That approach, said Williams, will materialize on the streets.
“We are going to see a more responsive Police Department as opposed to being reactionary,” she added. “He is committed to community policing.”
And there are signs he may be a good choice for the role, including his position as the department’s point man for reforms.
Even back in 2015, Chaplin spoke about issues of race in the department when Suhr sent him to the public defender’s annual justice summit.
“I’m in the unenviable position of being African American and being a cop. … There’s a lot of African American officers that are doing some self-reflecting about people they call friend,” Chaplin said at the summit, as KQED previously reported.
But some officers wonder whether a man who was a lieutenant just three years ago has the experience to lead a major metropolitan department. What’s more, some retired officers ask if the choice of a black man — who attends the church of the NAACP president and is close with the head of the Black Officers Association — was chosen for the optics as much as his personal experience.
Chaplin, who said he is not thinking about his future options, and appears to be a man with little baggage. He has worked patrol, narcotics and at the Gang Task Force until 2006 before transferring to homicide.
Chaplin said Friday he plans to reach out to the same contacts he made while on the Gang Task Force. But the Gang Task Force itself is not without its own troubles, especially when it comes to their too-liberal designation of gang affiliations. That practice has resulted in pegging many people as gang members who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time or were wearing the wrong clothes.
So Chaplin’s position on fighting gangs might have some wonder if he is the man to improve community relations.
Source: San Francisco Examiner | Jonah Owen Lamb
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